Probe into Dastageer Sahib shrine blaze: Ex-Div Com takes 13 months to come out with nothing Kashmir’s former Divisional Commissioner Dr Asgar Ali Samoon has come up with an inconclusive report into the mysterious fire that devastated the 200-year-old revered shrine of Dastageer Sahib at Khanyar Srinagar on June 25 last year. The report prepared in about 13 months— Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had announced that the probe would be completed in just few days—and made public by the government on Friday, is silent about the exact cause of the fire and recommends further investigations to find out the same. The report is contradictory in considering short-circuit as the cause of fire, which sent entire Kashmir Valley into shock and anger prompting the government to impose a weeklong curfew. In its concluding portion, it says that “the available evidence including statements of eyewitnesses and forensic reports suggest that possibility of short-circuit cannot be ruled out”. But in the next few lines, the report quotes the FSL experts to say that “no inflammable substance was detected and the exhibits do not bear any sign of short circuiting.” It subsequently blames the “mobs who went on rampage” for possible destruction of evidence that could enable the FSL experts to say anything with authority about the short-circuit. While the report rules out the accidental outbreak of fire due to use of ‘hamam’, it gives no concluding remarks about the possibility of any mischief into the whole incident. “Being summer the adjoining ‘hamam’ to heat up the premises of the shrine was not in use and therefore possibility of any fire outbreak due to this is remote as the fire started from the top minaret of the shrine,” it reads. “Access control and frisking arrangement by police to frisk the devotees/ outsiders,” it adds about any possibilities of mischief causing the fire, “was rendered difficult due to paucity of manpower deployed by police for front/rare exits, frequent easy access to the shrine by devotees and ongoing large scale construction work in the adjoining mosque making it vulnerable to such fire incidents to such fire incident.” The report, however, restates only what was widely reported by the media over the past one year. Through detailed accounts of the eyewitnesses, fire fighters, police, and of the caretakers of the shrine, it says, with authority, that the fire started “between 6 am to 6:15 am” and “from the top minaret of the shrine”—both the things were clear from the preliminary statement issued into the incident by the government. The report eventually puts the ball into the government’s court by recommending further investigations into the incident. “Detailed investigations by police and concerned intelligence agencies is required to find out exact cause of the fire incident, in view of the recent attacks on several shrines at Gund Hassibat, Khankah-e-Faiz Panan Tral, Rathsunah Beerwah, shrine of Meerak Shah Sahib Nishat, to restore credibility and public confidence by sharing the findings and to build up an adequate response for prevention of such outbreaks of fire in future,” it reads. #fAh33m
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 13:08:22 +0000
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